Lounès Chikhi

Lounès Chikhi (born Paris, France) is a French population geneticist of Algerian Berber extraction, based at the Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France, and also at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência in Oeiras, Portugal, where he runs the Population and Conservation Genetics Group.

Scientific career Chikhi is notable for leading a number of population genetics studies on the origins and demographic history of various of human populations – including Europeans and the peoples of Japan – and on the conservation genetics of various primate species. He has published a number of influential scientific papers in defense of model-based inference of population history and raising concerns about incautious used of interpretative phylogeography in making inferences on human population demographic history. He is also involved in conservation projects in northern Borneo and Madagascar, among others.